Red tide again shuts down shellfishing

Red tide has once again shut down shellfishing in the land that made the fried clam famous, leaving retailers and restaurants from Manchester to Maine to ponder the public's response to the third such closure in as many years, and right at the start of the busy summer season.

"Not another red tide story," said Kelly Corrao, owner of Essex Shellfish Co. in Essex when asked about the state shutdown. "As soon as anyone hears 'red tide' they skip over the clams and order the haddock."

Since 2005, summertime blooms of the red tide algae Alexandrium have at various times shut down shellfishing from Maine to Rhode Island, crippling the harvest of the popular soft shell clams, also called Ipswich clams, for which the North Shore is famous. The algae produce a neurotoxin called saxitoxin that builds up in shellfish as they filter food, including the Alexandrium, from sea water. Shellfish contaminated with red tide can be poisonous for humans. Red tide does not affect crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters.

Last Wednesday, the toxin was found in various shellfish at levels the federal government deems unsafe to eat. The Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries shut down the harvest from the state line south to the Gloucester/Manchester border. The Massachusetts closure came one day after New Hampshire announced a similar ban along its 11-mile coastline.

The string of closures started with a massive bloom in 2005 that shut down shellfishing along various stretches of New England, costing Bay State fishermen $10 million in lost earnings, according to state estimates.

That hardship prompted the federal government to hand out $5 million in disaster relief funds to New England clammers, 400 of whom have lined up for the $2 million that went to Massachusetts, according to Jeff Kennedy, a biologist with the state's Division of Marine Fisheries.

Just as that money is about to be handed out, Kennedy said, clamming is once again being halted along much of the state's northern coast.

"I haven't heard complaints from clammers yet," he said. "But to lose any work days in June and July is devastating for them. I know that they make the most money between Memorial Day and Labor Day. That's when prices are highest."

Prices will probably go a little higher still this summer.

The 2005 outbreak, the worst since a bloom in 1972 first put red tide on the regulatory radar, sent prices up as suppliers like Corrao, who specializes in local clams, scrambled to find outside sources.

Salisbury seafood wholesaler Hunt Seafood already gets a lot of clams from areas not contaminated by red tide and doesn't expect any interruption of supply this summer, owner Edwin Hunt said.

"This is a problem with local clams rather than a problem of getting clams to the marketplace that are safe to eat," Hunt said.

Both Hunt and Corrao credit the state with erring on the side of caution with the latest round of closures. The federal limit on saxitoxin in shellfish is 80 micrograms per 100 grams, or just under a quarter pound, of meat.

Saxi toxin is potent, and red tides can get out of hand quickly in the right environmental conditions. In 2005, toxin levels exceeded 2,000 micrograms per 100 grams in Massachusetts Bay , according to figures compiled by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod.

That bloom was greatly enhanced by unusual environmental conditions that included two rare May northeasters followed by persistent northeast winds. At the height of the 2005 bloom, 77 percent of Massachusetts waters were closed to clamming.

"We're hoping for more typical summer weather this year, with southwest winds that will blow the bloom back off shore," Kennedy said. "But anything is possible. We've seen it go both ways."

(Clarification: A story in today's Globe North section reports that the state Department of Marine Fisheries closed shellfishing from the New Hampshire border south to the Gloucester/Manchester town line due to red tide contamination . The ban went into effect on June 20 and was lifted by the state yesterday , after Globe North went to press. A similar ban issued by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services on June 19 covering that state's coastline is still in place, and will be for at least the next two weeks, according to an agency spokesman.)